Microelectronic components, such as integrated circuits and micro-mechanical systems, can be manufactured using lithography systems in which light-sensitive coatings on substrates are exposed to light for the purpose of generating structures. Such lithography systems generally use imaging devices to transfer very small structures onto a radiation-sensitive or light-sensitive layer of a substrate (wafer). Such imaging devices include projection exposure systems in which the light from a light source (e.g., a laser) is directed to a mask, the so-called reticle, via an illumination system. The structures of the mask or reticle are projected onto the substrate bearing the light-sensitive layer via a projection objective. For the purpose of suitably illuminating the reticle, light modulation facilities (e.g., a multi-mirror array (MMA)) can be used in the illumination system to obtain a certain intensity distribution of the light in a pupil plane of the illumination system.
Spatial light modulation devices, so-called Spatial Light Modulators SLMs, can be used in lithography systems to effect amplitude distribution, phase distribution and/or polarization distribution of the radiation may be effected.
A maskless microlithography system can use a light modulation device in the form of a multi-mirror array. In such a maskless microlithography system, instead of a reticle being illuminated with a corresponding micro-structure, the structure to be projected is generated by the position of micro-mirrors of the multi-mirror array and the resultant intensity distribution of the light.